Enabling the effective integration of primary, secondary and social care

Putting an end to top down reorganisation

Making sure primary care is properly resourced

Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chair of the Academy said: “As we move towards the general election it is clear that the future of the NHS is one of the most important issues for the electorate. This compendium of views sets out in clear and simple terms what the new health secretary must do if he or she is to create a sustainable NHS which can deliver the kind of service we all deserve. We know that some changes will take longer than others and will undoubtedly require investment, but in the longer term they will pay dividends. But there are other simple changes that can be made soon, that don’t require vast resources, but which will quickly bring big benefits for patients. The medical royal colleges and the medical profession as a whole are ready and willing to support the next government to overcome the challenges, but it must recognise that the system is at breaking point and we are running out of time if we are going to fix it.”

The “incomplete” target, which requires 92 per cent of patients to be waiting no more than 18 weeks to start treatment, was achieved in February at 93.1 per cent.

This comes despite a high number of cancelled elective operations because of bed shortages following what was widely thought to be the toughest winter for accident and emergency departments in recent years.

Simon Beesley, the trust’s lead on seven day services, told directors that a lack of information from NHS England regarding which national standards to prioritise in 2015-16 had made planning difficult.

A spokesman for NHS England told HSJ it is up to local health economies to decide which standards to prioritise in their areas.

Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust in Harlow, Essex, is now looking to become an integrated care organisation and is investigating both “horizontal” and “vertical” integration with other health bodies.

The development was revealed in a paper presented to West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s board at the end of last month.

It is the first time an NHS body has said publicly that the £177m-turnover organisation would not viable as a standalone FT.

1.25pm Concerns about a nurse convicted last month of raping and photographing unconscious patients at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford were raised more than five years ago, HSJ can reveal.

A complaint of voyeurism was made against accident and emergency staff nurse Andrew Hutchinson in 2009, HSJ has learned. It is understood he was accused of “inappropriate behaviour” and taking photographs of a student nurse who was working in the department at the time.

Hutchinson last month pleaded guilty to 27 counts of rape, voyeurism and sexual assault at Oxford Crown Court, including four attacks on unconscious patients in the hospital’s A&E.

The trust confirmed to HSJ yesterday that a complaint of voyeurism was made in 2009 and that it carried out an investigation but took no action against Hutchinson, who is due to be sentenced on 27 April. It did not pass on details of the complaint to Thames Valley Police in 2009.

10.52am Here’s a few more of the findings from the BMA’s survey:

Only 8 per cent of GPs feel that the standard ten minute consultation is adequate

More than nine in ten GPs (93 per cent) say that their heavy workload has negatively impacted on the quality of patient services

GPs believe that factors that could help better deliver the essentials of general practice include increased funding (76 per cent), more GPs (74 per cent), longer consultation times (70 per cebt) and a reduction in bureaucracy (64 per cent)

10.39am Trusts have managed to meet a key waiting time target just weeks before the general election

The ‘incomplete’ target, which requires 92 per cent of patients to be waiting no more than 18 weeks to start treatment was met at 93.1 per cent.

This comes despite a high number of cancelled elective operations because of bed shortages following what was widely thought to be the toughest winter for accident and emergency departments in recent years.

Ninian Peckitt, 63, was described by witnesses as punching the man but later wrote that the patient’s face had been “digitally manipulated”, it was said.

The General Medical Council said the case against the surgeon was not about the outcome of his approach, but the method of the surgery he is alleged to have used.

Professor Peckitt was working as a locum consultant in oral and maxillo-facial surgery at Ipswich Hospital in February 2012, when he was called on to treat the patient, who had suffered a fracture following an industrial accident.